Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Victor hesitated to start talking. It did not help at all to see ‘’himself’’ sitting across him slightly smiling at him in an uncomfortable silence.
The man opposite of him did seem to enjoy the awkwardness, so Victor broke the silence.
‘’So who exactly are you?’’ Scratching his head, Victor asked his pressing question.
The man on the opposite grinned at his question. ‘’Now now, it’s not good to be dishonest here. What you want to know is were they actually your parents out there.’’
Tapping at the armrest, the man continued without letting Victor speak. ‘’Yes, in a way you met them. Like everything here, it is a dream of sorts. I merely connected the dots and gave a little guidance.’’
Hearing the answer, Victor’s eyes reddened. ‘’How is this even possible? It is impossible!’’ Losing his cool, Victor stood up angrily.
‘’Sit down pup.’’ Waving his hand, the man again pressed Victor back to his seat.
‘’I think you have an inkling of an idea of what kind of world you are in. The man who impaled you. Do you think he was just a normal chap?’’
Frowning his eyebrows, Victor sunk into contemplation. Yes, the man who impaled himself was extraordinary.
The speed, presence, strength and that madness in its eyes was not possible for ‘’normal’’ people.
The dots were quickly connecting in Victor’s head. The differences in society, strange people who every once in a while showed up in his shop and all the superstitions people had.
Opening his mouth with disbelief, he asked with a wry tone.
‘’This world has superhumans? Yo gotta be pulling my leg here man. There is no way humans can achieve what that beast showed that day without a strange mutation maybe?’’
Hearing the question that turned into self mumbling and speculation, the man in red robes broke out in laughter.
‘’Smart. I like that. Yes there are the so called superhumans. In addition to many other races, try recalling the visions on your way here.’’
Hearing this, Victor thought back to the senseless violence he had seen on the way. Yes there seemed to be myriad races.
Demons, angels, beastmen and even monstrosities depicted like in a book Victor once read about old ones. Palming his forehead, he could not help but break out a cold sweat.
‘’The visions…Are real?’’ Feeling like his worldview was broken, Victor tried to deny the man’s claims.
‘’You betcha champ. What you saw was a portion of my memories, did you enjoy the tour?’’ Joking lightly, the man made himself a cup of tea and sipped nonchalantly while watching the reaction of his ‘’other self’’.
Victor put on a nauseous face and replied with a drooping voice.
‘’Quite frankly it was not to my taste, even when the graphics were top notch. Cut the crap and don’t try to dodge the subject! How is it possible for my parents to be here?’’
The man in red put down his tea cup and stared at Victor. ‘’The answer is not as simple as you might think.’’
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In a brightly lit government owned hospital ward, Captain Murray unceremoniously lit a cigar and observed Victor through a one-sided window.
Beside him, a man dressed in a typical surgery outfit held a stack of papers.
‘’The tests came back?’’
The doctor adjusted his glasses and began his report.
‘’We found no abnormalities from the victim. We did every possible test on him and found no irregularities. That man is a normal human without an ounce of mana in his body, but he was quite lucky: There does not seem to be permanent damage from the wounds.
‘’So the report from the squad was either wrong or falsified? Interesting…’’ Cocking his eyebrows tightly, Murray was deep in thought.
‘’I will confirm the validity of the report myself. Open the door.’’
Hearing the Captain’s demand, the doctor made a difficult face and stood in front of Murray.
‘’Sir, the patient has just been stabilized properly. There is still a need to patch up his wounds properly and it is best if that happens in sterile conditions.’’
‘’I do not care what you want. This is related to the wellbeing of my subordinate. Open the door and step aside, this is a direct order.’’
Emitting a fierce pressure, Captain Murray growled at the pale faced doctor who insisted on upholding the safety of his patients.
Seeing that the doctor was not about to give in; Murray karate chopped the man in the neck and knocked him unconscious.
‘’So stubborn. It is not like I need your permission or the codes to open the door…’’
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The government owned hospital did grant access to the facilities only for the authorized personnel only.
Of course the reinforced doors and the entry was impossible for only normal humans and this was not a problem for a grandmaster like Murray.
Sternly walking in front of the door, Murray clenched his fist and pounded the door with great strength.
The blow to the door slammed it wide open with a shockwave that instantly sounded the general alarm of the facility.
Marching towards Victor accompanied by alarm sirens, Murray had the determination to see through on how he made Nicole pay the ‘’Great price’’ she reported to him.
Placing his hand on Victor’s heart, he started to inject his own mana to probe his situation.
Slow and somewhat weak pulse could be felt, as the doctor described and the general idea was the same as in the report.
The wound in Victor’s abdomen was somewhat severe, but he would be soon released. Provided of course that he would take good care of himself and get patched up by the doctors.
Searching for clues, Murray did not want to admit he was wrong. However it became painfully true.
This man was as ordinary as they come. Regardless of this, Murray always believed that one suspicious point was coincidence, but two or three would start to make a line.
And this man was involved one way or another in multiple incidents. He had to have something special, or he was just unbelievably unlucky to get entangled in all sorts of messes.
Sweat soon started to form in Murray's forehead as he continuously searched and searched for clues, until a hand grabbed him in the shoulder.
‘’John, I think it’s best to just let the poor guy rest. I wanted to give you a chance to see for yourself, but if you continue, his life will be in danger.’’
Murray had been too focused to search for faults in Victor that he had not even realized that there were multiple people around him in the quarantine hospital room.
Sighing with regret, he removed his hand from Victor and turned to look at the source of the voice with a tired look on his face.
‘’Deputy Chief Andersson. It is truly my mistake this time, and I will give you a reasonable explanation at a later date. Please continue with your work here.''
Murray walked slowly towards the exit with somewhat guilty expression and gave a quiet mumble.
''I will take my leave now as there is an ugly motherfucker waiting for his date in the basement. I don’t want to keep him waiting for too long.’’
The deputy chief looked at the lonely back of departing Captain Murray with some pity in his eyes and turned to look at his colleague.
‘’Don’t be too harsh on him, he has plenty of problems to deal with already… Let’s just focus on our job and he will do his. For now, we should start to operate on the victim. Prepare the surgery asap.’’
----------------------------------------
Victor tried his best to wrap his head around some of the ‘’basic’’ things told by the red robed man.
‘’I have not sensed any mana in my life, so why are you telling me all this?’’
Shaking his head with disappointment, Victor could not help but feel a bit bitter.
While he had given up science after the accident back on Earth, Victor was always curious about learning new things.
Now this man in red had just told him that there is a new world to explore. A world beyond Victor’s common sense and he could not feel but a little giddy about it.
Maybe he could discover and learn things that he would have never thought possible? But this all seemed so reliant on the ‘’Mana heart’’, which he did not have.
The man in red was amused at Victor's reaction and soon after he put on a sly look of a businessman.
‘’What would you give for the ability to sense mana?’’ Cackling ominously behind the business smile, the red robed ‘’Victor’’ asked his counterpart.
Ignoring the chill in his spine, Victor pondered seriously for a moment. The man in red waited in silence, until Victor answered his question.
‘’If you are seriously asking me that question, that means you need something from me. Desperately. State your terms.’’ Victor asked a question instead of an answer from the man sitting across himself with a small frown.
Hearing the question, the man in red broke into a hysterical laugh and only calmed down after a ten or so seconds had passed.
‘’As I thought, you are smart and cautious. But I don’t really need anything special. Just continue selling items as per usual and live your life as you want to, no strings attached.’’
Hearing the answer, Victor breathed out with relief. It seemed that the man would not be too unreasonable, so he chose to trust him for now.
If this thing called mana truly is like what the other ‘’Victor’’ said, he would personally need to gather some empirical evidence to see for himself.
Just as his mind was about to wander to the ideas of research, he suspiciously looked at the man in red. ‘’How does this transaction benefit you? It seems like a loss on your part.’’
Chuckling, the red robed man turned his back on Victor.
‘’I do get paid for ‘’good deeds’’. One way… Or another, don’t worry about it.’’
Chuckling ominously, the shadow behind him was extending and the figure did not seem so familiar anymore.
Victor’s sense of danger was screaming that this man was not to be trifled with, but he tried to seem as calm as possible.
Victor hastily averted his gaze from the shadowy figure and just decided to advance one step out of the time: It is not a problem for today since the man in red seemed to be amicable towards him.
The man in red suddenly looked at the ceiling and called out to Victor.
‘’All dreams must come to an end at some point, It would seem it is time for you to wake up. Continue to work hard and maybe we can chat like this again soon.’’
The roof of the small antique shop shattered with a loud rumble and Victor was pulled towards the abyss above with startling speed. Leaving behind a horrified scream of Victor who experienced the ‘’reverse freefall’’ for the first time, the red robed man vanished from his field of vision.
Somehow Victor stabilized himself in the air and saw the rainbow road and his shop getting smaller and smaller, he heard a faint voice that was somewhat distorted in his ears.
‘’The name is Randa#%&!=. Pleasure doing business with you, Victor.’’